Active clinical trials for "Critical Illness"

The purpose of this clinical trial is to determine whether intravenous iron supplementation of anemic, critically ill trauma patients improves anemia and reduces the need for a red blood cell transfusion.

Study hypothesis: High-dose vitamin D leads to a shorter hospital stay in critically ill patients Vitamin D deficient patients will be randomized to receive either 540,000 IU cholecalciferol or placebo.

The purpose of this study is to assess the short-term effect of sympatholysis on sleep quality and inflammation in critically ill patients.

All critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients in the Intensive Care Unit receive medications to relieve pain and anxiety. However, accumulation of these medications can be associated with serious complications, most notably longer time on the breathing machine and in the ICU. Two strategies have been shown to dramatically improve patient outcomes: nurse-directed protocols for giving sedation, and daily interruption of sedation. However, these strategies have not been widely adopted, because of physicians' concerns, and because it is unclear which strategy is better. Given that patient outcome is improved with either of these strategies, the fundamental question that arises is whether patients managed with a combination of two strategies which both reduce drug accumulation (protocolized sedation and daily interruption) have an even better outcome than patients managed with only one of them (protocolized sedation). We propose a multicenter study in which 700 critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients will have their sedation managed with protocolized sedation alone, or both strategies. Both groups of patients will have the following recorded: ICU and hospital lengths of stay, mortality, total sedative drug use, ICU human resources used, side effects and recall of their ICU stay. The results of this large multi-center trial will help to inform best practice with regard to sedation management of critically ill patients in Canada and elsewhere. In addition, reducing ICU stay could be economically attractive, as the cost of an ICU day in Canada is approximately $3000.

Background: Two recent systematic reviews of the literature and meta-analyses have suggested that colloids administration might be deleterious in critically ill patients. Objective: To compare the effects on hospital mortality of crystalloids and colloids when given for fluid resuscitation in critically ill patients. Setting: Adult intensive care units (ICUs) in several European countries. Study design: A multinational, randomised, controlled trial performed on two parallel groups. Intervention: Any type of crystalloids (control group) versus any type of colloids (including albumin). Patients: All patients above the legal age of consent and hospitalised in an intensive care unit, who need fluid resuscitation (according to the physician). Pregnant women, moribund patients, brain dead patients, and patients who have a known allergy to colloids or severe head injury or major burns (> 20% of body surface) or dehydration will not be included. Primary endpoint: 28-day mortality. Hypothesis: Assuming a hospital mortality rate of 20% in the crystalloids group, a 0.05 type I error, 3010 patients are needed to show a difference between the 2 groups of 5% with a 90% probability (two-sided test).

The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of morphine 2,5 mg or morphine 7,5 mg iv during a painful and unavoidable intervention in critically ill patients.

Critically ill children are often sedated in order to relieve them from anxiety and discomfort, and to facilitate their care. There is little information on the effects of prolonged and continuous use of sedatives and analgesic agents in critically ill children. In adult intensive care unit (ICU) patients, daily interruption of sedative infusions accelerates recovery resulting in a reduction in the average duration of mechanical ventilation of 2.4 days as well as a reduction in average ICU length of stay of 3.5 days. These results were achieved without an increased rate of adverse events potentially linked to less sedation and associated with a reduction of common complications of critical illness and without negative psychological effects. It is unknown whether these results can be extrapolated to critically ill children. Moreover, the possible risk of complications associated with less sedation, such as accidental self-extubation, is probably higher in children. Also, the need for intermittent bolus administrations in children treated with intermittent sedation could nullify the reduction in the use of sedatives. It is unknown if daily interruption of sedatives is feasible in critically ill children. The researchers studied the effects of daily interruption of sedatives in critically ill children on the total amount of sedatives used and risks of complications.

The primary aim of the study is to compare the effects of the two blood glucose targets on 90 day all-cause mortality in Intensive Care patients who are predicted on admission to stay in the ICU for at least one full calendar day. The hypothesis is that there is little difference in the relative risk of death between patients assigned a glucose range of 4.5 - 6.0 mmol/L, and those assigned a glucose range of less than 10.0 mmol/L with insulin being infused if blood glucose exceeds 10.0 mmol/L, and adjusted when needed to maintain blood glucose of 8.0 - 10.0 mmol/L.

The purpose of this study is to describe the pharmacokinetics (PK) of six different dosing regimens of epoetin alfa (PROCRIT®) in anemic critically ill subjects

Glucontrol is a prospective, randomized, controlled, multi-centric study. The present study will compare the effects of two regimens of insulin therapy, respectively titrated to achieve a blood sugar level between 4.4 and 6.1 mmol/l (80 and 110 mg/dl, respectively) and between 7.8 and 10.0 mmol/l (140 and 180 mg/dl, respectively). This project aims at defining whether a tight glucose control by insulin improves the vital outcome in a mixed population of critically ill patients (around 3000 patients). Secondary outcome variables will include in-hospital and 28-day mortality, lengths of stays in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and in the hospital, length of ICU stay without life-support therapy, number and clinical signs of episodes of hypoglycemia, rates of infections and organ failures, and number of red-cell transfusions.